Splatman

I read a book on the economics of the news media recently that is 20 years old but is nevertheless relevant to this issue. The author explained that, until pretty late in the 19th century, newspapers were almost exclusively partisan and economically dependent on subsidies by political parties. The development of a non-partisan press was prompted by technological progress, which caused the cost of production of newspaper to fall dramatically, making it possible for newspapers to reach a much larger audience. This allowed them to expand their advertising market, but in order to do so, they needed to attract readers across party lines, which in turn incentivized a non-partisan coverage of the news. Obviously, this doesn't mean that the press was not biased, but it was still very different and less partisan than in earlier periods. I think social media have largely reversed that by incentivizing people to cater to specific ideological bubbles. It remains to be seen how AI will affect the news sector, but I'm sure it will have a large effect on it so it seems important to think about it.